XIII: Legacy
Leo stares at the cup of water Tecton places in front of him. They promised that late lunch is on its way, but he doesn't think he can put down anything right now.
They took him to an empty conference room at Mighty Max. There's nothing intimidating about the room itself. It's neat, furnished similarly to the way conference rooms at Davenport Industries are furnished.
But what unsettles him is the fact that they took him there rather than to an empty room upstairs. That makes his heart beat a little harder. He's already a bit dizzy from lack of sleep, but being here, in the prison of the superhero world, his head spins harder.
"I think I'm going to be sick," Leo mutters as he hunches over the polished oak table.
Tecton and Skylar exchange glances. "I can get you something from upstairs," Skylar offers, standing.
Leo shakes his head. "No, no. I'm just –" He swallows, willing his stomach to stop turning. "I've never been at Mighty Max before."
"I'm sorry, Leo. I know how awful this must look," Tecton says. He sits down across from him. "You have nothing to worry about. We only took you down here because there were too many people upstairs. We want to take you where it's safe."
"Safe? Like Tom Cruise Day and Night safe?"
"I'm sorry?"
"Nothing."
Tecton notes the nervous way he knots then unknots his fingers. "Leo, I promise, you are not in trouble. It's really just precaution." He weighs his next words carefully before saying, "It's for your safety. We don't want word getting out about your connection with The Incapacitator."
Leo nods absently.
Tecton can tell he's distracted, but he doesn't push. Instead, he says, "Your mom said you haven't had food and sleep yet. Besides that, how are you doing?"
"Fine."
"You look pretty banged up."
"It's okay. I'm used to things like this now. I go with my siblings whenever they have missions." He rethinks about it. "At least, I used to go with them. I don't think they will trust me anymore."
The silence that follow is cold, unsure. There's a threat of hostility at its fringes, but Leo thinks it might just be because of the prisoners somewhere in their vicinity.
"Well, you survived a rumble that involved multiple super villains. If they don't think that's proof that you're more than capable to roll with them, that's their loss."
Leo blinks as Skylar smiles at him. There's something so warm and comforting about it, something non-judgmental and safe.
Unknowingly, he reciprocates her kindness with a small smile.
"I know this is probably the last thing you want to talk about," Tecton says a moment later, "but we have to discuss it: what happened while you were with your father?"
What happened? Leo scours his memory of a few hours ago. "Nothing. We just hung out," he tells Tecton. "He'd been wanting to take me to my grandparents' house for the longest, so that's where he took me."
"So, that house was your grandparents' house."
Leo steels. Should he have said that?
Seeing that the teenager won't go into any more details on that, Tecton segues, "Your grandparents. You know that we know what happened to them."
Leo thinks carefully about his answer – a task proving too difficult without sufficient rest. He wonders whether it's time to tell Tecton and Skylar what he knows yet.
After hearing about Sebastian Kline, though, he hesitates. He doesn't know if he can trust anyone beside Horace. "Yeah," he answers instead.
Tecton nods. If he smelled anything suspicious from his silence, he doesn't let on. "You can probably guess that the house isn't quite a house anymore after this morning."
"Yeah. The job gets messy."
"Right. Don't worry, though: we instructed the agents at the area to collect whatever they can from the wreckage. It'd be in evidence for a while, but we can release them to you – if that's what you'd like."
The memory of the stuffed bunny and his father's and uncle's favorite story books causes a small smile on his face. "I'd like that."
Tecton smiles back. Then he sits up. "Now…"
"You want to know if my dad told me anything, what he's going to do next."
"Let's start first on his reason for taking you," Tecton says. "He obviously hadn't been violent with you before. What happened at the island?"
Suddenly, Leo feels as if the last ounce of his energy had been drained from him. "I don't know either. He told me he was going to come get me, but I thought it won't be for a few more days. I...I kind of had a feeling that he was going to come that day, but after he told me he wasn't…"
He smirks, scoffing. No. He didn't tell me he wouldn't. I just assumed. "I thought he wouldn't," he corrects himself. "He said he wouldn't, and I believed him."
"And you didn't tell anyone about it."
Leo glares. He doesn't like how that sounded. "They all think he's dead. How would I do that without sounding like a complete lunatic?"
Tecton nods patiently. "Okay."
At that moment, the door swings open. "Sorry I took a while!" a female superhero in black, white, and silver comes in, a tray of food in her hands. She closes the door then puts the selection in front of Leo, smiling widely at him. "Here. This is yours, they said."
Tecton clears his throat. "Uh, Sharp?" Then, he gestures at his eyes.
The younger superhero only tilts her head, confused. Then: "Oh! The mask. Right," she says. She takes the empty seat next to him. "Well, I figured he should know who I am anyway. Hi. I'm Sharp."
At first, Leo only eyes her and the hand she's offering. Eventually, he shakes her hand. "I'm Leo. Dooley."
"I know."
Must be a new superhero in the league, Leo thinks.
"Where's Gamma Girl?" Tecton asks her quietly.
Sharp grins. "Italkedherintolettingmesitininstead," she replies under her breath. "Now! Where were we?"
"Uh, we were just asking Leo about what happened at the island," Tecton answers, but it's obvious her arrival had given him an unpleasant whiplash.
"Alright."
The oddness of their interaction causes Leo to chuckle. Tearing open the small bag of chips, he answers, "It was important for both of us that people don't know we're related."
"I'm sorry?"
"Us. My dad and I." Leo tests a potato chip then he takes a bite of the marvelously warm BLT sandwich. The taste of food in his mouth floods him with much joy. "This is fantastic," he tells Sharp.
Sharp grins. "Got you one of those and also a cheeseburger. I didn't know which one you'd want."
"Mm-hmm." Leo takes another bite, finishes it, and then continues. "It's important to Incapacitator that his enemies don't know he has a weakness. He thinks they'd want to exploit it."
Tecton frowns. "Enemies. Like, superheroes?"
"Some of them. Not you, though. He's worried about other villains, too."
Skylar nods. "Makes sense."
"Did you guys find the energy transponder?"
"No," Tecton answers.
For a while, Leo only eats. The fuel helps him to think clearer. "They all wanted it, the visitors from last night," he says. "I told my family about this already, but they all came for the energy transponder."
Tecton's – and even Sharp's – brows furrow. "How did they know about it?"
"I don't know. My dad isn't the type of person to broadcast things, unlike my stepdad," he mutters the last part.
He then frowns when he remembers something. "Well, Sonic Shriek did say that somebody sent a message out. He said they were told where my dad is and that he has the energy transponder. If they wanted it, they could get it."
The frown on Tecton's and Sharp's faces clear.
Leo doesn't miss the knowing look that comes to Sharp's eyes. "Interesting," she says.
"Why?" Leo asks, sitting up. "Did someone really want us hurt?"
"We're investigating that," Tecton says (Leo notes how he doesn't meet Sharp's eyes). "Who did you see at the house this morning?"
"Uh, Sonic Shriek, like I mentioned," Leo answers. "You said Ambusher was there. Mr. Terror's lackey was there; don't know his name. Slither was there, too. He tried to kill me."
"He tried to kill you?"
Leo nods. "In my sleep."
"How'd you escape him?" Skylar asks.
The voices, Leo thinks but can't say.
So, he just shrugs.
"You mentioned Mr. Terror's minion, Mort," Tecton prompts. "Besides the transponder, did he mention any other reason why he was there?"
"Not really. That's all he wanted. He was probably there just to get it for her."
"Her?" Sharp asks.
"Mr. Terror."
"It's still strange to me hearing that Mr. Terror is actually a woman," Skylar comments. "It's possible, of course, but we've always thought Mr. Terror was a man."
Leo shrugs. "Maybe in the past."
"Incapacitator never said anything how he knows about that?" Tecton says.
"Nope. Like I said, he keeps me out of his business." Sadness slowly comes over him when he remembers his father. They argued yesterday.
Now, he doesn't even know how to contact him.
"I told him I didn't want to be a villain," he admits, putting down the sandwich. He cleans his fingers with a napkin and says, "He keeps offering to train me but I told him I didn't want to be one."
"You didn't."
"No." He hesitates to continue. He doesn't know if they're even genuinely interested in the reason.
A weary smirk pulls at his lips. "It upset him, whenever I said no. He said I'm being wasted assisting my siblings. I'm too smart for it, he said." He chuckles humorlessly. "Maybe this makes me a bad person, but I agree with him. I do. I never told my stepdad and my step-siblings this, but I hate the way they treat me. Lately, they seem to have developed the unique ability of making me feel useless."
He chances a glance at his audience, and the mixture of uncertainty, sympathy, and pity with unease makes him think that he had overshared.
They won't understand, he concludes. They've never been in his situation anyway.
So he sits up and pretends none of it happened. "I know I might be asking the impossible. As superheroes, your job is to protect others and uphold justice or whatever. But Joel Jones is important to me. He's my dad. He's the only one who makes me believe that I'm good for something other than desk work."
He bows his head and grips the edge of his chair, the tide of desperation slowly rising once again. "I know I don't have enough merit to ask you this, but please – save my dad. You can arrest him, do whatever, but please bring him back alive. I...I'm not ready to lose him yet. I still need him."
He doesn't look up. He doesn't want to see outright rejection of his request from their faces.
The silence that follows is sluggish and cruel. For a moment, Leo thinks they will kindly reject him, tell him other people's lives are valuable so they must do what they have to do.
But then, Tecton says, "Our job is to protect others—including your dad." He smiles when the teenager looks up at him. "Look, I know The Incapacitator and I don't see eye to eye, but my only goal has been to catch him. We know what your father went through."
"Yeah," Sharp chimes. "We know he doesn't have a good opinion of us, and that's understandable, but it doesn't mean we want him gone. We still hold out the hope that he will change his mind."
"Even when he absolutely hates all of you?"
Sharp takes in a breath and glances at Tecton. "Even...when he absolutely hates us."
Leo blinks. Can he really hope? Many things can happen during an arrest, and his father is not one to go down without a fight. Can he really trust them?
He surveys the room quickly for any surveillance equipment. "Do you...Do you know of a superhero named Solstice?"
"Uh…" Tecton shakes his head. "I – I don't think so."
Skylar shakes her head when Tecton turns to her.
"Why?" Sharp asks.
Leo reads it immediately. She's curious, but not puzzled like Tecton and Skylar. Her eyes betray that she might know something that her colleague and junior don't know.
It's his ace, his father's lineage. However, it makes him nervous again, the looming cloud that is Sebastian Kline.
He doesn't know how close or loyal Tecton and Sharp are to Kline. "The Arcturion," he leads instead.
"Solstice...has it?"
"What is it?"
"Why?"
Why am I stuck with this situation? "Tell me, and I'll tell you," he negotiates.
Tecton ponders over it, but it takes a little too long for Leo's taste.
"It's an alien power source," Sharp answers instead. "It's rumored to give an insane amount of power to whoever can harvest its energy."
Leo sighs. Insane amount of power. Of course. "That makes sense."
"No one knows where it is, though."
Leo scoffs softly. "I won't be too sure about that."
"Did Incapacitator say something about it?"
"Not in connection with his plans, no."
Tecton's eyes narrow as Leo draws the silence. "But he mentioned it to you. Why?"
Leo shrugs. "Like I said, he doesn't like it that my step-family keeps benching me. He knows I don't want to follow in his footsteps, but that doesn't mean he has stopped convincing me.
"The thing is, I know I don't have powers. He thinks I'm just a late bloomer, but I know enough to know I'm not. So he was suggesting ways for me to get these powers he's convinced I inherited from him—"
"And he mentioned the Arcturion," Sharp finishes. "He wants it for you."
"Only if I want it, he said," Leo says. "That's how I found out that Mr. Terror is a woman. He said we have a better chance at getting our hands on it than she does."
"I know he didn't say it," Tecton says, "but did it feel like he might know where it is?"
He doesn't have to think about it long.
Instincts kicking in, his mouth glues shut.
Seeing his hesitation, Tecton pleads, "Leo, we have to know what we're dealing with. Like you, our families want us to be able to come back home to them. The better prepared we are, the less likely any of those involved will get seriously hurt."
Leo thinks over it a moment. Eventually, he acquiesces.
He nods.
"He knows where it is?" Skylar asks, shocked.
"Like Tecton said, my dad didn't say it," Leo clarifies, "but I know him. He wouldn't have made a comment like that if he didn't have any idea where it is or how to locate it."
Tecton falls back into his chair, sighing. "This is a big problem. If he has the Arcturion it will be dangerous for all of us."
"But – he's not going to have it that quickly," Leo reasons desperately. "He's taking his time with this plan. It's not like the other times."
"That's not how Incapacitator usually operates," Sharp says. "He acts quickly. He thinks on his feet. He doesn't plan—"
"I know, I know. It's just – It's different this time," Leo says. "If the rumble didn't happen, the two of us would have been there at Kansas for a few more days. He wanted to wait it out."
"What was he doing while you were at your grandparents' house?" Tecton asks.
"I don't know. Fixing something?"
"Did you see what he was working on?" Sharp asks.
"No. He – he had me locked up in his old room."
"So how would you know he was actually there?"
"Because I heard him! He was there!"
His yell echoes in the silence.
This is not going to work. He usually doesn't get this emotional, but… "He's my dad," he tells them. "I know that things are different now, but I know he's still a good father. He still respects my opinion. If that Arcturion or whatever is dangerous, especially to someone like me, he wouldn't have brought it anywhere near me."
The memory of his father telling him everything will be okay makes him miss his father even more. "That thing is just not part of his plan, okay?" he says. "I just know it."
The room lies still for what must be the longest moment. It seems to Leo that time has frozen.
Eventually, Tecton sighs. "I'm sorry, Leo, but it looks like it is," he disagrees. "He may not have had it with him when you were still together, but with what happened this morning…" He shrugs.
"Look, we're not saying our intentions of catching him alive has changed. It hasn't," Sharp kindly assures the teenager. "All we're saying here is that if the Arcturion is involved, we're going to need more help. That's all."
If he allows himself to be more reasonable, Leo can see that they're telling the truth.
Still, it worries him. If something happens to his father because he mentioned the Arcturion, won't it be his fault?
He fidgets with the edge of the table as tears glaze his eyes. "I just want to see him again, that's all," he mutters.
Thoughts of his father, of how badly things can end, numbs him that he slowly forgets the other people in the room.
But then, a hand gently rests on top his, putting a warm pause on his fidgeting.
Skylar smiles at him when he turns to her. "Do you want to come with us?"
"Skylar," Tecton and Sharp warn in unison.
"Like you both said, it'll be a highly volatile situation if Incapacitator has the Arcturion," Skylar reasons. "But if we have Leo there, he will hesitate."
"That's also putting a civilian in danger," Tecton points out.
"He's not exactly just a civilian. He assists his siblings in different missions. He knows how these things usually goes."
"But—"
"She's right. I should be there," Leo agrees. "He won't listen to me, and he'd get mad that I'm helping you – but I could be a buffer."
"No," Tecton says. "That's too big of a risk to take."
"It's my life."
"That we're not willing to risk."
"But it's mine."
"It's also something that your father would not want to risk." The fire in the leader's eyes weakens. "Leo, this is not a fight you should get involved in. We don't want you to get hurt, and Incapacitator wouldn't want you to get hurt."
"But...I can't just sit here," Leo pleads.
"You can, and you should," Tecton says patiently. "Your dad will be safer if you're out of the rumble. What if in his desperation to keep you alive, he does something that gets him hurt? What if in trying to save you, other people get hurt?"
"I'm useless, is what you're saying."
"You're too important is what we're saying," Sharp corrects. She smiles at him. "Your dad is right: you're a promising young man. And, personally, I do think desk work shouldn't be all that is for you. But if something happens to you, everything ends at that moment. There's no more future for you, no more ways to prove other people that they were wrong."
She's right. Once again they're right. "You're just saying that to convince me to stay."
"Yeah," Sharp admits, "because I really do think you'd make for a good trainee."
"A good...what?"
"Your family must be looking for you now," Tecton says, getting up from the table. Though confused, Sharp slowly gets up, too. "We'll update you as soon as we find information about your dad. Right now, you should really rest."
"But, I haven't even finished my food yet," Leo says as he rises to his feet.
"That's fine. You can take it with you," Tecton says. "Sharp, there's something we need to discuss."
"Uh, what?" Sharp asks.
"Please come with me."
Sharp exchanges confused glances with the two teenagers as Tecton walks out of the room in a hurry. Though unsure, she follows him outside.
"Oh!" Leo says. "If you can, can you guys give my—"
The door shuts close.
Leo sighs. "...uncle an update."
"Your family probably already told him you're back," Skylar helps, looking up at him. "He's been worried about you, too, and I'm sure your stepdad would've sent him a text."
"Not that uncle. The other one," Leo says in resign. He frowns down at Skylar. "Do you know what she was talking about? What does she mean by trainee?"
Skylar shrugs, getting up from her chair. "I don't know. Probably League lingo that none of us can understand."
"You're not a league member?"
"No. Lost my powers. Technically not a superhero anymore."
Leo picks up his tray. "You and I are the same, I guess."
A smirk pulls at Skylar's lips as she follows him out of the conference room. "Same as in, we're both technically not superheroes?"
"No." He pauses to face her. "Both judged by the things we don't have." Continuing to the general direction of the elevator, he asks, "Is this the one we take up to Mighty Med? It's not going to take us to a weird place, is it?"
"No, no. It'll take us there."
Unknown to Leo, Skylar has smiled at him.
Because after a long while, somebody finally seems to understand her.
